Setting up benefit cycle rules

This procedure outlines tasks to maintain web benefits cycle data.

Maintain web benefit enrollments

  1. Access Benefits Cycle Rules (BS06.1).
  2. Specify this information:
    Company

    Select the company to which the cycle rule applies.

    Pay Plan

    Optionally, specify a pay plan.

    Specify a pay plan if you have multiple pay plans defined for the same frequency with different pay period date ranges. The cycle begin and end dates will align with the pay period dates and the correct cycle value is used to determine the cost of the spending account. If the pay plan selected has an effective date in the same year as the pay period begin and end dates, the pay plan’s effective date, pay frequency, and first pay period end date will default to the cycle rule record. Otherwise, the user will need to specify the effective date, cycle frequency, and first cycle end date to calculate, add or add the cycle rule record.

    Effective Date

    Specify the effective date for the Benefit Cycle Rule. If automatically creating Date Ranges, the Pay Period End Date cannot be less than the Effective Date.

    Users are required to specify cycle rule records for each year based on effective date.

    Cycle Frequency

    Select the cycle frequency to generate the cycle period date ranges and remaining cycles. If you specified the pay plan, the cycle frequency will default from the pay plan’s pay frequency. The defaulting will only occur if the pay plan’s effective date is in the same year as the pay period date ranges. Otherwise, the user will need to select or specify a cycle frequency value to add the cycle rule record.

    The cycles frequency would be defined for the monthly and/or semi-monthly cost divisor and the employee pay frequency values of weekly, bi-weekly, semimonthly, monthly, and nonstandard semimonthly. Cost divisors are defined on Benefit Enrollment Rules (BS01).

    If the cost divisor on Benefits Enrollment Rules (BS01)is annual, the number of cycles remaining is always 1. Therefore, no BS06.1 record is required.

    First Cycle End Date

    The first cycle period end date is used to automatically generate cycle period date ranges based on the cycle frequency. This field is only required if the user is automatically calculating the cycle dates when performing the special Calculate; Add function.

    Position to End Date

    Specify the date you want to position to on the screen. The record selected will have a Begin and End Date Range that includes the Position to End Date.

    Begin Date

    You can specify a cycle period begin date or the system can automatically calculate this date.

    The date must be one day after the previous end date.

    End Date

    You can specify a cycle period end date or the system can automatically calculate this date.

    The date must be greater than the begin date.

    Remaining Cycles

    The system will automatically calculate cycle period date ranges and remaining cycles for each cycle period date range when a user performs a Calculate; Add function. You may override the number of cycles remaining. You may also specify the remaining cycles when you add a new record and the cycles remaining are not calculated automatically.

    If the Benefit Enrollment Rules (BS01) is defined with a monthly cost divisor, the cycle rule record defined with the monthly cycle frequency is used to determine the remaining cycles to use for calculating the cost that is displayed in the web benefits enrollments task.

    If the Benefit Enrollment Rules (BS01) is defined with a semimonthly cost divisor, the cycle rule record defined with the semimonthly cycle frequency (excluding the nonstandard semimonthly cycle frequency) is used to determine the remaining cycles to use for calculating the cost that is displayed in the web benefits enrollments task.

    If the Benefit Enrollment Rules (BS01) is defined with a pay frequency cost divisor, the cycle rule record defined with a specific pay plan or cycle frequency that matches the employee's pay frequency of weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, or monthly are used to determine the remaining cycles to use for calculating the cost that is displayed in the web benefits enrollments task.

    For all Benefit Enrollment Rules (BS01) cost divisor records (excluding annual where 1 is assumed), the employee pay frequency will drive what Benefit Cycle Rule (BS06) is used to determine the remaining cycles to use for calculating the cost of the employee’s benefit enrollment on the server.

  3. Select the form function from these options:
    Define cycle rule records by a specific pay plan If a company has multiple pay plans defined for the same frequency with different pay period date ranges, they could set up multiple Benefit Cycle Rule (BS06) records by a specific pay plan. The user specifies the company, a specific pay plan, and the first cycle end date and then perform the special Calculate; Add function. The pay plan's effective date, description, and frequency will default onto the Benefit Cycle Rule (BS06) program. This action will automatically create the cycle rule period dates using the pay plan's pay period dates and calculate the remaining cycles for each date range in a descending order based on the cycle frequency value. The user may override the calculated remaining cycles value by performing a "Change" function. If they need to adjust the cycle begin and end dates, they will need to delete the entire record on Benefit Cycle Rule (BS06) by performing a "Delete" function and specify the correct first cycle end date and then perform the Calculate; Add function again
    Define cycle rule record with a cycle frequency only and no pay plan The same special Calculate; Add function can be performed where the cycle period dates can be automatically calculated based on the first cycle end date specified. The cycle period dates are determined by the cycle frequency where the system will calculate 7 days for the weekly frequency, 14 days for the bi-weekly frequency, the 1st and 15th the semi-monthly frequency and the 1st and last day of the month for the monthly frequency.
    Manually add a benefit cycle rule record The user specifies the cycle period date ranges and cycles remaining and performs an "Add" function. The cycle period date ranges cannot overlap and need to be specified in sequential order. However, not all periods need to be defined for the entire year. The user may modify these detail records by performing a "Change" function as the user may need to override the remaining cycles value for a given cycle period date range. They may select to manually add the cycle rule record, because the cycle period date ranges may not sync up with the pay period date range on the employee’s pay plan. The client’s cycle period date ranges may align to the actual pay date cycles versus the pay period dates in order to use the correct cycle value in the calculation of the pay period deduction amount that display on the pay check. However, it may be more typical to align the cycle period date ranges to the pay plan’s pay period dates.
    Note: Depending on the Benefit Enrollment Rules (BS01) record Cost Divisor value, the system will find the Benefit Cycle Rule (BS06) record defined by the employee’s specific pay plan first to determine the remaining cycle value. If no Benefit Cycle Rule (BS06) record exists for the pay plan's frequency that matches the Benefit Enrollment Rules (BS01) cost divisor value, the system will find the record defined by the cycle frequency to retrieve the remaining cycle value. The benefit cycle rules need to be defined on the Benefit Cycle Rule (BS06) for each year based on the effective date.